Overcome the first roadblock in Diablo 4 Season 1
If you’ve just begun your journey through Season of the Malignant in Diablo 4, your path forward starts straightforward. You can take your first season quest right in Kyovashad, and you’ll knock out quest objectives in rapid succession as the game establishes the new story. Then you get to the Holding Back the Flood quest, which… may not appear so straightforward at first.
To complete Holding Back the Flood, you will have to complete Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the Season Journey. You can find the Season Journey by opening the main in-game menu and selecting the “Season” tab to the left of the map tab. Here you’ll see your Battle Pass, but you’ll also notice an option called “Season Journey” on the left, right under where it says “Season of the Malignant.” Select this and you’ll see a variety of tasks you must complete for each chapter of the Season Journey.
Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. If you’d like to quickly advance through the Season Journey, check out our tips below.
How to complete Chapter 1 of the Season Journey
In the Season Journey menu, you’ll see nine different tasks under Chapter 1. Fortunately, you only need to complete seven of them to proceed. Below is a list of each task, with an asterisk next to the tasks I recommend prioritizing.
- *Collect Gallowvine, found nearly anywhere
- *Collect a Malignant Heart, available after completing or skipping the Campaign
- *Complete any Dungeon found on your map
- *Complete a World Event found on your Map
- Complete Dungeons in Fractured Peaks
- *Complete a Cellar
- *Complete priority or side quests
- Collect a Whispering Key, sold at the Pureyor of Curiosities
- *Salvage Normal items at the Blacksmith
Truthfully, you can complete all of these tasks without much effort. Each task in the Season Journey advances your Battle Pass, so you should eventually aim for 100% completion. I only recommend skipping dungeons in Fractured Peaks since it’s relatively time consuming, and you’ll naturally complete that as you go. You’ll also inevitably get a Whispering Key sooner than later, but grinding for Obols isn’t terribly efficient early on.
Absolutely try to salvage Normal items early on. They’ll ironically become rarer later, so this will save yourself a bit of headache.
How to complete Chapter 2 of the Season Journey
Similar to Chapter 1, Chapter 2 presents 11 different tasks to complete. However, you only need to clear nine of them to advance. Here is the full list again, with asterisks next to the tasks I think you should prioritize.
- Complete 10 Cellars
- *Collect Malignant Hearts, available after completing or skipping the Campaign
- *Conquer a Stronghold
- *Craft any Chipped gem at the Jeweler
- *Complete Malignant Tunnels, available after completing or skipping the Campaign
- Reach level 25
- *Collect Demon Hearts, found from killing Demons or in Cellars
- *Change your gear’s appearance at the Wardrobe
- *Interact with waypoints for faster travel to new places
- *Upgrade items [once] at the Blacksmith or Jeweler
- *Upgrade your potion to Minor at the Alchemist
Many of these simply require interacting with core systems in the game, so you’ll knock them out easily. It’s good to grind Malignant Tunnels at this stage, if only to get a handle on the Season’s mechanics. Note that you do not need an Invoker to complete Tunnels. You can simply clear out the monsters and collect Caged Hearts for your troubles.
I do recommend clearing Cellars as you see them. However, they’re a bit clunky to hunt specifically, which is why I advise against prioritizing that objective. Conversely, you’ll hit level 25 naturally, but I was still a bit under that by the time I finished the other tasks. Strongholds do have some relatively high level minimums, so these can initially look daunting. However, once you hit level 20, you can knock out either stronghold to the east or west of Kyovashad.
Once you advance your Season Journey, the Holding Back the Flood quest will automatically resolve. Afterwards, you will see the quest “Answers in the Ashes” in its place. Congratulations!
